


HTCAWOL Chapter 16: Conlang Notes

by afterandalasia



Series: Life Built on Snow and Ashes [4]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Conlangs, Gen, Meta, Spelling & Grammar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-16 01:16:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7246333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afterandalasia/pseuds/afterandalasia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Notes on the conlang featured in my fanfic <i>Life Built on Snow and Ashes</i>, particularly chapter sixteen of <i>How to Change a Way of Life</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	HTCAWOL Chapter 16: Conlang Notes

**Author's Note:**

> Main conversation: [How to Change a Way of Life: Chapter 16](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6205909/chapters/16450228)
> 
> Other chapters with Marulos:  
> \- [How to Tame a Dragon's Fire: Chapter 1](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5191358/chapters/11962241)  
> \- [How to Tame a Dragon's Fire: Chapter 2](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5191358/chapters/12082325)  
> \- [How to Tame a Dragon's Fire: Chapter 6](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5191358/chapters/12578375)  
> \- [How to Tame a Dragon's Fire: Chapter 12](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5191358/chapters/13443793)  
> \- [How to Tame a Dragon's Fire: Chapter 16](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5191358/chapters/13979692)  
> \- [How to Tame a Dragon's Fire: Chapter 18](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5191358/chapters/14217301)  
> \- [How to Change a Way of Life: Chapter 16](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6205909/chapters/14908204)  
> \- [How to Change a Way of Life: Chapter 12](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6205909/chapters/15809347)

Elsa: Heiva. Iil paakutii Marulosen?  
Elsa: Hello. Do you speak Marulosen?  
Elsa: Hello. [Question] [speak-thou] [Marulos-accusative]?

 

Elsa: Aan tiisaatoskohesa. Avat maanetiisen?  
Elsa: They will not hurt you. What is your name?  
Elsa: [Negation] [thou dative-cause hurt-future-they nominative]. [What/How] [name-thee nominative-reflexive]?

 

Albrekt: Avat maane _tii_ sen?  
Albrekt: What's YOUR name?  
Albrekt: [What/How] [name-THEE nominative-reflexive]

 

Elsa: Maaneumasen Anna. Iil am tii?  
Elsa: My name is Anna. And you?  
Elsa: [Name-me nominative-reflexive] Anna. [Question] and you?

 

Albrekt: Albrekt.

 

Elsa: Aan tiisaatoskomee, Albrekt. Iil esuaatii Kiirkyllailt? Iil sahen aarint?  
Elsa: We are not going to hurt you, Albrekt. Do you come from the Village? In the east?  
Elsa: [Negation] [thou dative-cause hurt-future-we nominative]. [Question] [come from-thee nominative] [Village-ablative]? [Question] [be-they singular] [east-inessive]?

 

Albrekt: Sahen paajonint; aan sahen aarint. Aan esuaatii Kiirkyllailt.  
Albrekt: It is in the north, not the east. You are not from the Village.  
Albrekt: [Be-they singular] [north-inessive]; [negation] [be-they singular] [east-inessive]. [Negation] [come from-thee nominative] [Village-ablative].

 

Elsa: Ekan, esuaatoluma Kiirkyllailt. In, esuaama Berkilt.   
Elsa: Once, I was from the Village. Now, I am from Berk. Elsa: Once, [come from-past tense-I nominative] [Village-ablative]. Now, [come from-I nominative] [Berk-ablative].

 

Elsa: Aan Berk taanokaajentolhen.  
Elsa: Berk did not banish you.  
Elsa: [Negation] [Berk nominative] [you plural dative-banish-past preterite tense-they singular].

 

Albrekt: Siitap. Imeatuntii.  
Albrekt: So. You know.  
Albrekt: So. [Know-thee nominative].

 

Elsa: Otak. Iil tiinokuatatooloshesa?  
Elsa: Of course. Will you let them help you?  
Elsa: [Of course]. [Question] [thee dative-assist/help-future tense-optative mood-they singular]?

 

Albrekt: Avat Berk ekyaadiit meenosuulav?  
Albrekt: How can Berk help?  
Albrekt: [What/how] [Berk nominative] [be able to-they singular nominative] [us dative-help-infinitive]?

 

Elsa: Tiinorukaatonodhen. Saiit miiv. Am tiinonaatonodhen huttiapnoan.  
Elsa: They can give you food. It is good. And they can give you blankets.  
Elsa: [Thee dative-feed-future tense-conditional-they singular]. [To be-it inanimate singular] [good singular/uncountable]. And [thee dative-give-future tense-conditional-they singular] [blanket-accusative-plural].

 

Albrekt: Ei tiikos. Albrekt: Thank you.

 

* * *

 

 

Anyone else got a headache yet? Because believe me, I gave myself one trying to get this conlang in order enough just to have this short conversation. And because Hiccup is now going to start learning the language, this is probably the most that we'll ever see of it; what appears in other chapters is generally odd words or short phrases.

The conlang is loosely inspired by Finnish. I say inspired by (rather than based on), because I do not speak any Finnish, and Finnish was chosen for plot/worldbuilding related reasons as a language about as far from English as I needed for plot reasons. So the vowel:consonant ratio, the vowel doubling (for ten total vowel sounds) and the agglutinative nature of the language. It has multiple moods and cases, no grammatical gender, but no vowel harmony.

 

 

 

 

 

Marulos is an agglutinative, case-heavy language. I do not speak any languages like this, and therefore if I have screwed up, I apologise (I speak fluent English, moderate French and Spanish, can read some Portuguese, and have a very small amount of German and even less Welsh). In non-linguistics terms, it uses building blocks to create words, putting them one after the other. It is written as it is spelled (thank you, Finnish!) and tends towards having few long words. All words have emphasis on the first syllable. (Above, Albrekt deliberately breaks this by saying 'What's  _your_ name?' to Elsa - this is going against the general rules for effect and emphasis.)

 

Vowel sounds:

[a] = /æ/ as in bad

[aa] = /ɑː/ as in bard

[e] = /e/ as in bed

[ee] = /iː/ as in bee

[i] = /ɪ/ as in bid

[ii] = /aɪ/ as in bide

[o] = /ɒ/ as in bod

[u] = /ʌ/ if stressed, as in but; [ə] "schwa" if unstressed as in comm **a**

[uu] = /uː/ as in boot

[y] = also /iː/ as in bee; [y] is very rare in Marulos and is actually borrowed from it's mother (/sister?) language Arendellen

 

oo is not a vowel sound; it is pronounced as two /ɒ/ sounds, with a faint glottal stop in between.

 

Consonants are pronounced as their most common pronunciation in English.

 

 

 

 

 

Marulos distinguishes between first, second and third person in the singular and plural. For the conversation above, I noted first person singular as 'thee', because English is significantly unhelpful when it comes to the second person. It does not distinguish between gender in the third person, but does distinguish between animate and inanimate.

 

paaku - speak (stem)  
paakuuma - I speak  
paakutii - thou speakest  
paakuhen - he/she/they singular (animate) speaks  
paakuiit - it (inanimate) speaks  
paakumee - we speak  
paakutaa - you (plural) speak  
paakuhesa - they (plural, animate) speak  
paakuiin - they (plural, inanimate) speak

 

Marulos also has a lot of cases (less of a thank you, Finnish). Most of them have honestly not been created yet, but we have seen several in this conversation.

 

For example, cases of Kirkylla - The Village (the name of the main Wildling group, who live a semi-sedentary lifestyle and call themselves a 'village' for historical reasons).

Kirkylla - nominative, e.g. the Village is small.  
Kiirkyllaen - accusative, e.g. he found the Village  
Kiirkyllano - dative, e.g. he gave a name to the Village  
Kiirkyllailt - ablative, e.g. he comes from the Village  
Kiirkyllaint - inessive, e.g. he lives in the village

 

All of these cases exist in Finnish. (Note: Marulos does not have a partitive tense separate to an accusative one.)

 

Unlike Finnish, Marulos has distinct future and present tenses, but keeps the three past tenses (preterite, perfect and pluperfect, e.g. I spoke, I have spoken, I had spoken).

Simple future - paaku **ko** uma - I will speak  
Present - paakuuma - I speak  
Preterite - paaku **tol** uma - I spoke  
Perfect - paaku **amtun** uma - I have spoken  
Pluperfect - paaku **amol** uma - I had spoken

 

Marulos also has moods. It largely uses the indicative ( _realis_ ) mood, that is a mood indicating things which are actually occurring. Other moods are the _conditional_ (an indication that something may or may not actually happen) and  _imperative_ (for the giving of orders). It does  **not** have a subjunctive (this was a deliberate choice for a scene in one of the fics). It has some lingering remnants of the  _optative_ case, one which indicates hope/wish/desire, which is used in formal language in Arendellen but is rarely used in normal street Arendellen or in Marulosen. Although is is technically possible to use, it is very rare; Elsa appeals to it in the above conversation as an indication of seriousness of her offer. The conditional would be more common.

Indicative - paakuuma - I speak  
Conditional - paaku **nod** uma - I might speak  
Imperative - paaku **laa** uma - I must speak!  
Optative - paaku **olos** uma - I hope that I may speak

 

 

 

 

 

Further notes on this language may be added with time, if I use it more within the fic.


End file.
